IPPR says water response lacklustreNo defined plan or communications message The authorities have come under fire for their response to the water crisis in the central regions last year.
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The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has criticised the key water sector authorities for their lukewarm effort to raise public awareness prior and during Windhoek's water crisis.
The IPPR's report on Windhoek's water crisis says poor public awareness by authorities during the crisis, a lack of communication, lack of concrete action taken by government officials and conflicting messages by the relevant authorities, are just some of the highlights of the report.
According to the institute, the media throughout 2015 and even earlier, reported on the alarmingly low water levels in the three-dam system that supplies water to Windhoek and government's perceived inaction, while water experts repeatedly over the past years highlighted major deficiencies and underinvestment in bulk water supply systems.
The report says key authorities tasked with managing the water crisis including the City of Windhoek, NamWater and the agricultural ministry, made various attempts to communicate the status of the water savings, water saving measures and restrictions on water use.
“Hence, they relied almost exclusively on the media alone to inform and advise city residents. No cohesive and comprehensive communication strategy was ever put in place. Neither did authorities focus on the critical importance of raising awareness among city residents regarding the urgent need to conserve water.”
The report further says that while the agricultural ministry announced in 2015 that the government would implement a large-scale awareness campaign to inform citizens about the water crisis and urge them to save water, the campaign was never realised.
Instead, the report states, individual public institutions, at different stages of the crisis, conducted small-scale, uncoordinated and often poorly conceptualised awareness-raising efforts. The report says that while the city produced stickers and posters with water saving tips, it had no formal distribution channel for this material, while NamWater placed a few radio adverts urging citizens to conserve water.
Eventually, the authorities concerned established the National Water Savings Campaign.
“However, nothing tangible has taken place under this campaign to date apart from the Water Marshals' programme,” the report says.
It says that poor communication between authorities with regard to public announcements led to mixed and conflicting messages and this sometimes had negative consequences for water saving efforts.
For instance, during a press conference last year in September, agricultural minister John Mutorwa, stated that the Windhoek aquifer had enough water to supply the City for 10 to 13 years.
However, the City of Windhoek in October issued a press statement which clearly rejected this.
“… the Windhoek aquifer only holds sufficient water to sustain the city for between two to three years in the absence of the NamWater supply system and not 13 years as reported.”
The statement further claimed that water savings fell and attributed this to Mutorwa's statement reported in the media.
According to the report, the lack of a coherent, large-scale, well-resourced and professional water saving campaign will continue to hamper authorities' ability to communicate effectively with citizens and bring about the crucial attitude change to manage the country's water resources responsibly.
It further says that public announcements with regard to policy formulations by senior national officials and politicians during the water crisis contributed very little in terms of genuine leadership and support to the management of the crisis.
“The speech-making by senior government officials repeatedly acknowledged the gravity of the situation and concerns about the estimated high costs of addressing infrastructure shortages of the overall water sector.”
The report also says concrete strategies and action plans were however very seldom publicly formulated.
ELLANIE SMIT